AROUND TOWN

Club Car is named preferred supplier

Club Car Inc. announced Wednesday that it has been named the preferred supplier of golf cars and turf/utility vehicles for the 600-member European Golf Course Owners Association.

Club Car said the agreement was finalized at the 12-nation organization's recent conference in Amsterdam.

In the U.S., Club Car is the exclusive premier partner of the National Golf Course Owners Association, which includes the owners of more than 6,200 golf courses.

BRIEFLY

Stock exchange merger approved

NEW YORK - The New York Stock Exchange said its shareholders approved its planned $14.3 billion acquisition of the Paris-based Euronext NV on Wednesday in a deal that would create the first trans-Atlantic securities market and set the stage for further expansion.

The deal is set to be completed during the first quarter of 2007 after regulatory approval. The deal is seen as a prelude to an era of cross-border exchanges trading stocks, options and other financial products on a global scale.

Aramark returns to private firm status

PHILADELPHIA - Aramark Corp., the nation's largest food service company, will be taken private for the second time in 22 years after shareholders on Wednesday approved a $6.3 billion leveraged buyout.

It will also be the second time long-running Chief Executive Joseph Neubauer leads an investment group to take Aramark private. The first was in 1984, to thwart a hostile takeover from corporate raiders. The company went public again in 2001.

Deal may foretell Web video boom

SAN JOSE, Calif. - LM Ericsson's plan to buy Redback Networks Inc. for $2.1 billion is a sign of how the popularity of Internet video is expected to drive demand for broadband network upgrades.

Redback makes "edge" routers, which are used to link homes and businesses to the Internet and are increasingly being used to simultaneously handle data, voice and video downloads. Ericsson is the world's top maker of mobile phone networks.

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REACH US

Contact Business Editor Damon Cline at: (706) 823-3486 or damon.cline@augustachronicle.com.